FILE: Date and Location Unknown (China National Petroleum Corporation - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Aerial shots of China-Russia gas pipeline under construction

Heihe City, Heilongjiang Province, northeast China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
2. Various of pipeline, other facilities in gas distributing and compressing station
3. Various of workers, banners
4. Various of pipeline, other facilities
5. Workers checking pipeline, other facilities
6. Various of pipeline, other facilities

The China-Russia east-route natural gas pipeline went into operation on Monday, which is regarded as a mutual complementarity between Russia's rich natural resources and China's vast market.

The landmark project is expected to drive economic development in regions along the pipeline and improve people's livelihood.

The pipeline started to transport gas from Russia's Chayandinskoye field to the gas-distributing and compressing station in Heihe City of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, the first stop after the Russia-supplied natural gas enters China.

The pipeline is scheduled to provide China with five billion cubic meters of Russian gas in 2020 and the amount is expected to increase to 38 billion cubic meters annually starting from 2024, under a 30-year contract worth 400 billion U.S. dollars signed between the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Russian gas giant Gazprom in May 2014.

The east-route pipeline improves China's natural gas network in the eastern region, and speed up the building of China's natural gas network, as it connects with the existing gas network in northeast China, the Shaanxi-Beijing gas pipeline network, and the west-east gas pipeline.

The pipeline opens another market for Russia's natural gas, as the country used to export natural gas mainly to Europe. It helps Russia transfer its rich natural resources into economic advantage, boosting economic development in the region along the pipeline.

China imported 121.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2018, as the largest gas importer in the world, while Russia produced 669.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2018, accounting 17.3 percent of the global gas production.

The cross-border gas pipeline has a 3,000-kilometer section in Russia and a 5,111-kilometer stretch in China.